Commander Spotlight: Boundless Realms

In a game that has has stretched to over 10,000 unique cards, it can be hard to nail down all of the different cards you’ve used over the years that create noteworthy, memorable moments, over and over. These are cards that resonate with you as a player, and you develop a special fondness for them; you never tire of drawing them in a game. Sometimes it’s because they’re incredibly flavorful or devastatingly potent. Perhaps they’re a card that you find particularly hilarious, or strange, or just utterly random.

Whatever the motivating force behind them is, though, we all tend to develop a list of favorite cards.

As far as list of favorite cards go, Mirari’s Wake is a safe choice, I know. But as a player who enjoys utility cards, I always appreciate when a card fills more than one function. Mirari’s Wake doubles my mana production from lands and buffs my creatures at the same time. Without me needing to activate anything. That’s win-win right there. Plus, it’s a multicolor card – something I always have a soft spot for.

The mere 5-cost to cast is also nice, but unlike more aggressive players, that’s not what sells me. I’d be content with it costing more. (If it were monocolored it certainly would, and objectively-speaking, it probably still should be anyhow.)

However, the major problem with a great card such as Mirari’s Wake, especially in Commander, is that it’s such a tempting target for destruction. One simple Disenchant can cripple a player’s mana base while still not being as abrasive as land destruction. Yet we continue to use such cards, knowing the risks involved, because mana acceleration is usually more powerful than mere land fetch.

Usually, but not always.

Today we have: Boundless Realms

Name: Boundless Realms

Edition: Magic 2013

Rarity: Rare

Focus: Land Ramp / Mana Acceleration

Highlights: Sometimes you have to stare at a card like it’s a Magic Eye puzzle, trying to figure out what its purpose is. Other times, like here, it’s pretty transparent what it wants to do:

Would you like to potentially double your mana production?

Silly question, right? Of course you would. And this card can help you do it.

If you scoff at the idea of spending seven mana on a land ramp spell, consider this: Mana Reflection costs six, and just like it’s brethren, from the moment it hits the battlefield it makes a nice target for destruction. While you may not get the bonus from mana-producing creatures and/or artifacts that you do with the Reflection, Boundless Realms creates a much safer mana base for one extra mana. If it helps, consider Boundless Realms a one-time use enchantment that essentially nets the same result. Except that you don’t have to worry about losing it anymore.

What’s more, it helps thin your deck out in one smooth movement. In Commander, this is almost always an added benefit. As it has been stated before, the later in the game you go, the more drawing a non-land card can make the difference between winning – or not.

But if that’s not enough incentive, consider the fact that as a spell, there are a lot of options for hijinks. For example, there’s always the potential for casting it more than once. After all, green can getcardsback to be cast again. Or you could copy it. Or give it flashback. Or, well, you get the idea.

We’d never argue that Mirari’s Wake is not worth using, but at the end of the day it’s a lot harder to stop seven new lands coming out than it is to destroy one enchantment. And EDH loves destroying enchantments.

Keep an eye out for us to be regularly featuring other more accessible-but-worth-it Commander cards going forward. In the meantime, we’ll keep the light on for you.